Shaya didn’t mean to be annoying, she just wanted to make absolutely sure. Plus she liked winding teasing her friend.
“So, you’re sure then?”
“Shaya!” shouted the sprite as Shaya and Rowan laughed at her.
The closer they got to the woods, the better they felt. Their spirits had already been lifted by the return of the little sprite with the golden dress. The sky was a flawless deep blue, without a cloud in sight and the late summer sun was high above them, warm, but not too hot. It was a beautiful day. They felt good, cheerful as they laughed and joked, growing ever closer to the vast forest. They began to think that the worst was behind them. That soon, this nightmare would be over.
It was early afternoon when they finally arrived at the outskirts of Fylin Forest. It had taken them over a day to get there, they had been chased by Krarg and nearly eaten in their sleep. So why was it, when they were less than twenty feet from the entrance, they merely stood there, staring?
“This is it,” said Shaya.
“Yes,” muttered Rowan.
Jinx sat on Shaya’s shoulder looking at the pair of them.
“Why are we just stood here then?” she asked.
The two children looked at each other, they had no idea what to expect when they entered. They may have arrived at the forest, but they had no idea where to meet this Shale. They didn’t know if Benjin and Elle had even made it yet. They were worried. The invincible feeling they had felt only a few hours earlier had slipped away while they stood staring at the endless sea of towering green.
Eventually, they took their first steps forward, Shaya’s hand resting on the hilt of her sword, just in case. Jinx was excited, practically jumping up and down on Shaya’s shoulder. Shaya wasn’t. What if this was the end? Would she have to go back to farm life after all this? It had been hard, even scary at times, but she had wanted to be a soldier since she was old enough to hold a stick and wave it around like a sword. Now she felt like she was on her way to becoming what she had always wanted to be, and she wasn’t sure if she could give it up for a normal life.
The dirt path that they had followed lead them to the gaping mouth of the forest, as they made their way into the canopy of trees, the air got warmer and stuffy. Dozens of smells hit them all at once, the smell of damp grass, the sweet aroma of the red and white toadstools that grew at the base of almost every tree, the scent of the blue flowers that littered the floor. The sun was blocked by the blanket of leaves above their heads. Looking up they saw the leaves were alive, glowing in the sunlight, waving gently in the warm breeze, greens, yellows, reds, they danced around the branches. Tiny dragonflies buzzed around them, Jinx went off chasing them, giggling as she did. She would rest from time to time on a nearby branch or mushroom, but then shoot off again gleefully. Shaya and the prince walked along the dirt path until it was covered by layers of leaves, and the trail was lost.
They continued onwards, every so often they spotted small wooden structures, pieces of bark from the myriad of trees wrapped together with vines. They were crudely painted in different colours, different images all the time. One had a light brown acorn painted on it, another had a rough painting of a bouquet of pink flowers. Mostly they were just scribbles of colour, no clear picture or pattern, just colours. They were sticking out of the ground, hanging from branches, like signposts hanging from shop windows.
“They’re beautiful,” said Shaya as she looked up at another one hanging from the trees, all splashes of blues and purples.
“I wonder where they came from,” said Rowan as he spotted a red and pink one on the leafy ground. Sky blue and yellow flowers grew all around it as if it was being hugged by the colourful plants.
“Fylin Forest is old, very old,” Jinx began, as she gave up chasing a particularly elusive dragonfly “They have likely been here for centuries.”
As the trio continued deeper into the forest, they saw more and more of them. The bizarre symbols made the bright and colourful forest even more vibrant. Shaya and the others didn’t know what the cyphers were for, or who had made them, but they took it as a sign they were going the right way, they hoped.
Shaya eventually looked down and noticed the path was long gone, instead replaced with leaf-covered mud, her brown boots were caked in the muck, leaves and twigs stuck to her soles. In the dirt, she saw something, little tracks. Not footprints, or at least none like she had ever seen before. They were small and round, not much bigger than a silver loral. There were dozens of them.
“Look,” she said to the others, pointing at the marks in the mud.
“What are they?” Rowan wondered out loud.
Jinx jumped off Shaya’s shoulder and glided down to the floor, she landed in one of the tracks. It was deep enough that only her head poked out of the top.
“Well it wasn’t a sprite,” Jinx said glumly. Shaya knew that Jinx hadn’t seen another sprite in years and that she would love to meet another one again, even if it was only briefly just so she knew she wasn’t the last one in Arrolyn. She flew back up and hovered ahead of the other two as they continued. A few leaves fell from the trees above, they could have just fallen off naturally, or they could have been knocked off. Shaya looked up and couldn’t see anything except more leaves. They had all turned autumnal now, the deeper they went, the less green they saw. It was oddly beautiful, the muddy ground was layered with a carpet of reds and browns and oranges, the only other colours were the brightly coloured paintings. Even some of them were almost completely overgrown with weeds and vines, showing they had been there for a very long time.
Rowan’s ears pricked up when he heard something above them, a kind of scuttling noise. As he looked up, he saw a branch from one of the great trees move. Something had brushed against it.
“Did you hear that?” he asked, startled.
“I did,” Shaya already had her hand on her sword again.
Jinx floated up to the still swaying branch and had a look around, peering behind gold and red leaves bigger than her.
“Jinx, get down,” said Shaya in a loud whisper.
“There’s nothing up here,” she called down. Suddenly a large red and gold leaf behind her moved, it had been camouflaged with the rest of the foliage. As she turned, she saw the holes cut out of the leaf, and the deep brown eyes staring right at her. She let out a scream, and the leaf creature screamed back. Jinx bolted back down to Shaya and the prince and jumped onto her friend’s shoulder, hiding behind her yellow ponytail.
“The trees are alive,” she said in a panicked whisper “It’s huge.”
Some nonsensical gibberish echoed down from the branches high above, and they saw movement. Then suddenly the red and gold leaf monster jumped and came hurtling down towards them. It landed on two stumpy feet in front of them and roared a very unintimidating high pitched roar. It was only two foot tall.
“Yes, it’s gigantic,” said Rowan sarcastically looking over at Jinx who was dumbfounded.
“Well I’m smaller than you,” she snapped back.
The two-foot leaf was growling at them. It held a long wooden stick-like spear in its stubby little hands. The hands weren’t skin though, they looked like wood, light brown wood. It was trying to be menacing, it was failing, it was adorable.
“Oh aren’t you cute,” said Shaya as she bent down to get a better look. The leaf thrust its spear at Shaya, and she jumped back up.
“Hey, that’s not very nice,” shouted Jinx and the leaf looked up at her, then back at Shaya, and it lowered its spear.
“Sorry,” it said with a slightly squeaky voice, it looked down at the ground, it almost seemed ashamed.
“You can speak?” Rowan asked, surprised.
“Yep,” said the little woodland creature and it gazed back up at the prince. With its tiny wooden hand, it reached up and pulled off the colourful leaf mask.
The three onlookers gawked at the little tree like being that stood before them. It was wood, from head to toe, as if a tiny tree had pulled
its roots from the ground and started walking around. It had dozens of pointy twigs sticking out of its head with the odd red berry hanging from some of them. Its arms were short and stumpy, like two little logs with hands that only had two fingers and a thumb. Its short stubby legs were thick at the top and much thinner at the bottom, like upturned milk bottles. Its whole body was a pale brown colour, with patches of dark green. Vines had wrapped themselves around his torso and legs, with little olive coloured leaves sticking out of them. He had no nose, but he had a thin slit for a mouth. He was staring up at the astonished youngsters with his huge brown eyes that seemed to fill his whole face they were so big.
“Who you?” he asked finally. His way of speaking was an odd kind of broken speech. He tilted his head as he gazed up at Shaya.
“I’m,” she started, not too sure how to speak to a tree “My name is Shaya.”
“Shay-ra, Shay-ar, Shaya,” he stumbled over his words.
“That’s right,” giggled Shaya.
“Who you?” he looked at Rowan. Rowan looked at him slightly annoyed by the creature’s lack of respect. He glanced over at Shaya, and both her and Jinx were staring at him with an expression that said, go on then.
“Rowan, Prince Rowan.”
“Rowan Prince? Rowan Prince.”
“No, no Prince Rowan.”
“Hello Rowan Prince,” he waved his little arm at the young boy. The prince just shook his head and reluctantly said hello.
Jinx floated down off Shaya’s shoulder and hovered in front of the little tree.
“I’m Jinx.”
“You pretty,” he stared at her with his big eyes like he was transfixed by her beautiful golden glow. A smile swept across his wooden mouth.
“Thank you,” Jinx said bashfully “And what’s your name?”
“Me Sap.”
“Sap?”
“Yup.”
“And what, what are you Sap?”
“What is Sap? Sap a Rootling.”
“Rootling?” asked the prince, “I thought Rootlings were a myth.”
“Why a myth? Just because Rootlings don’t leave the forest, and no one seen Rootlings in ages and no one knows Rootlings here, Rootlings a myth?
“Well yes.”
“That silly.”
The girls giggled as they saw Rowan get more and more frustrated with the little Rootling.
“You’re a tree child,” said Jinx astonished.
“That what some used to call us yup.”
“Are there more of you?” Shaya knelt down in front of the Rootling, this time he didn’t try and stab her with his sharpened stick.
“Rootling Village full of Rootlings.”
“Do you know someone called Shale?”
“Nope.”
“Oh,” Shaya said a little deflated, she was sure they were on the right path.
“But Chieftain might.”
“Really?” she said suddenly excited.
“Chieftain know everyone.”
“Can we meet him?”
Sap paused and looked at each of them. He hesitated, and his gaze fell to the ground as he started kicking his left stump back and forth, playing with the leaves on the floor.
“Well,” she started.
“Please Sap, we need your help,” said Jinx.
Sap looked up at the floating sprite in front of him, she smiled a big smile. Sap stared at her for a minute, he loved the colour of her dress and the way she glowed.
“Okay, pretty Jinx,” he said finally “But you be good. All you be good.”
“Promise,” grinned Jinx, the others nodded their heads.
Still a little hesitant, he turned around and slowly began to walk deeper into the forest. The others followed behind.
“So you think this Shale may be one of these Rootlings?” Rowan said quietly.
“Maybe. It’s our only lead right now. Even if he isn’t, someone there may know who Shale is. It’s the best I have at the moment, your highness,” said Shaya.
“Well, let's just hope you’re right,” Rowan sighed.
Chapter Nine
A Rootling Welcome
Elle had no idea what time it was when she woke up. She had awoken in a panic, a cold sweat running down the back of her neck, she didn’t know why. The dream was still swimming around her hazy mind but fading fast. She had been in the castle, her home. She had been training Prince Rowan the ways of the sword. He wasn’t quite as useless as he used to be. King Leon stood in the courtyard watching with a broad smile under his white beard. He clapped and laughed as Elle had knocked Prince Rowan’s sword out of his hand after a quick succession of blows. He had applauded his son’s efforts and thanked Elle with a firm handshake.
Elle’s eyes had suddenly filled with tears. The king still stood shaking her hand and smiling warmly, ignoring the sorrow that had swiftly overcome her.
“I’m sorry,” she had said.
The warrior looked around, the campfire was nothing but ash, the sun was high in the sky, it must have been passed mid-day. She cursed at herself angrily, she had slept too long. Still groggy from her restless sleep she crawled over to Benjin. She checked to see if he was breathing, she could see his bulging chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. She breathed a sigh of relief and flopped against the tree trunk where Benjin lent. He had begun to slur his words a little the night before. He had grabbed his wound and what little colour remained in his face had drained away. With gritted teeth and a violent spasm, he had passed out. Elle had tried to get him to respond, but it was no use. After an hour or so of trying, she had given up and must have finally drifted off to sleep. They still had to reach Volanti Peaks somehow. In the distance, she could see mountains. Colossal spire-like mountains
reaching high up into the sky, still a long way off. As she surveyed her surroundings, her gaze fell upon a group of thick mandrake trees stood close by, their long vines wafting in the breeze. She had an idea.
It took her some time, too much time maybe but she wrapped Benjin’s unconscious body in the long thick vines she cut down from the mandrake trees. She bound and tied the vines around the old man and stretched several of the longer ones over her shoulder and started to pull. She was tired after the first few minutes, but she kept on going, she needed to get to the Peaks, and Benjin needed medical attention if he was going to live.
She barely knew the man. She had heard the name Benjin Greyborn mentioned around the castle for years. A great swordsman people had said, one of the best. From what she had witnessed, the whispers and rumours weren’t doing him justice. As a man approaching sixty, he was better than most soldiers half his age. Good swordsman or not, the fact remained that she didn’t know him. She could just leave him laying on the cool damp grass and continue on her own. That would be a sickening thing to do to someone, she wasn’t even tempted. Elle would never admit it, but she owed him one. He had saved her life a few times back in the castle; but then again, she had saved his life as well. Elle was a great believer in leave no man behind, and she never had. She certainly wasn’t going to start now. He was a good fighter and a loyal ally, which in times like this, was a precious thing, something she knew she wouldn’t be finding much of if the darkness she had seen was anything to go by. Besides he was a good man, she knew that for certain.
What was that thing back at the castle? It looked like a man, but it wasn’t one, it was a demon. No human had power like that, her mind started to twist and turn. Rage began to bubble up inside her, threatening to explode. Elle was so angry with herself.
You should have killed him, her thoughts shouted. Why did you let him live? The monster killed the king, he deserves to die.
Her rage was burning, it helped her, it fuelled her to go on. She would get Benjin to the Peaks, take him to their resident healer. Then she would send some of the armed scouts with word to Fylin Forest.
She heaved Benjin onwards, and her arm screamed as she strained. Her forehead was pouring with sweat that dripped down, s
tinging her eyes. She didn’t care about the pain in her arm, or the fact that she was sweltering and exhausted, she didn’t care about any of it. She wasn’t going to let an unconscious ally and a shattered arm stop her from doing her duty.
♦ ♦ ♦
The maze of trees abruptly opened up, Shaya and the others were suddenly in a huge clearing with trees surrounding them on all sides. In the middle was something none of them expected to see, it seemed impossible. Houses, wooden houses. Dozens upon dozens of them, Shaya lost count. They were built like log cabins, out of thick, sturdy dark brown logs that were tied together with various coloured vines. No building was the same as any other, they were all wholly unique. The ones on the outskirts were built up against the surrounding trees, the ones in the middle were all various shapes and sizes. Thousands of leaves had been used to cover the roofs, the colours matched the brilliant autumnal glow of the trees above their heads.
A blanket of reds and yellows lay above them, like harmless flames glowing in the sunlight. The trees that surrounded the village bent inwards and made a natural roof over the community with shards of sunbeams poking through. There were Rootlings everywhere, some stood having a conversation, others walked around doing whatever Rootlings do in the afternoon. There were even young ones, they were so small they probably didn’t even reach passed Shaya’s boots. They were running around, laughing and playing in the crystal-clear stream that ran through the village. The Rootlings were all different colours, some were dark brown, some were beige, some were pale green, a few were even an ashen blue colour.
“I can’t believe it,” said Jinx “it’s beautiful.”
“Thank you, we like it,” said Sap with a smile.
“Where is this Chieftain of yours Sap?” asked the prince as he looked around at all the different houses.
“Chieftain there,” Sap pointed at the house in the centre. It was two stories high, much bigger than the rest and was the only one decorated with two large red flowers painted on the walls. They were crewed drawings, just like the symbols Shaya and the others had seen on their journey through the forest. It even had what looked like a carpet made of only red leaves on the floor outside leading to the doorway. As they started towards the Chieftain’s house, the outsiders were quickly noticed. Rootlings stopped talking, they stopped walking, they stopped playing in the stream, they just stared, mouths agape, eyes glued to the humans wandering through their town.
The Shattered Moon (A Divine Legacy Book 1) Page 12
